The Toughest Sprint- Sprint the Gaps!
Sprint the Gaps last weekend was a good and tough time. We didn’t decide until last minute to to do the race. Not only that, when I got there, I actually decided not to do the race due to feeling flat, tired, and generally blah. We had a busy day the day before without a whole lot of sleep.
| Awesome ATC mock triathlon the day before the race. A lot of work, but turned out amazing with about 90 participants! |
Then I started thinking about the logistics of trying to get a workout in later- plus missing out on what was sure to be an epic sprint. With about five minutes till transition closed I ran to get my bike back off the rack and get registered and set up. Stefanie helped me immensely.. she set up half up my stuff and body-marked me while I was simultaneously registering and getting everything laid out.
My lack of prep time meant there was no time to be nervous. I wrestled on my wetsuit and jumped in the water with one minute to go! The swim was in a beautiful clear lake, surely the clearest I have swum in in Georgia. I was looking for feet and was surprised to see two ladies go off the front immediately- like way off the front as in I had no shot. Reminding myself that I had only been in the water for technically one swim workout in the three weeks prior, I decided to stay calm. Then I saw Karen, who is also one of the ATC head swim coaches who was tackling the sprint only nine weeks post-partum. Of course, she is a way better swimmer than me, however, I figured since she’s only been in the water once in six months or so, she might be a good drafting candidate. So I jumped on behind her feeling terrible the whole time. To me, a non childhood swimmer, there is no pain like the pain of not swimming for awhile then jumping right in for a hard swim. Nothing. The mere 600 meters felt like an Ironman swim- even with a wetsuit on. Ugh.
| Karen with the newest member of ATC post- race! |
Finally, I got out and was shaking so bad it took me forever to get my wetsuit off. Like, as in I had to sit down to remove it. Then I jumped on my bike and was ready to go. I also didn’t mention that I got the amazing gift of DI2 for my birthday as a surprise from John, but I hadn’t practiced with it yet. At all. So I was fumbling with the gears as we prepared to hit Wolpen Gap. There was an initial little hill and I ended up having to jump off and run up it cyclocross style, because I couldn’t manage getting in the small ring in time.
After that there was a lot of climbing- I mean a lot. I wasn’t feeling too vibrant and my watts were 10-15 below what I would expect- three weeks is still a little soon for me to race all out and well. There were two girls in front, one, impressively, on a mountain back who I passed rather soon. The other one I didn’t see until the very end.
The course was an out and back so we climbed the 2.5 mile Wolfpen gap twice. At the turnaround I was amazed that Alex had already caught up with me despite starting five minutes behind. John and a couple of other guys, and gals were there too. I tried to push it harder on the way back but I was lacking that top gear. About that time I heard an ambulance siren. Not good. There was little question that it was likely someone from the race.
I finally caught up with the other girl at the very end but a third girl had caught up with us at that point. We all ran out of transition together. One girl fell back and I decided to just run right behind the other and see how things shook out.
We chatted a bit and after about a mile it was time for me to move forward. Very hilly and tough. Lots of cheers from the folks camping in the campground. I tried to give my poor legs a break on the uphills and ran the downhills pretty strong. At the end John was about to catch up despite starting way behind. I figured he let me cross the line first in the final quarter mile. Tough stuff! Almost a 4.5 mile run of the hilliest terrain I’ve done in a race.
Right after crossing we learned that Ted had crashed out and gone to the hospital so that was a huge negative. We went to pick him up from the hospital later, and he had unfortunately broken his clavicle and will have to sit out a few weeks. Huge bummer.
The race itself was awesome, and it was a beautiful and tough course. Love all the Zone 5 races- they do a great job! Would love to see another race (or the same race) at this venue going forward, especially loved swimming in the clear lake.
